Johnny Pail Face Becomes a Human Being

A biography that spans almost a century, the book is the story of 97-year-old Johnny Pail Face, a Native American born on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. His life’s journey began in the Old West and led him to soldier in three wars and to not one but two brushes with genocide in a single lifetime. In the first, his Native American people were the victims. In the second, he fought with gun and bayonet alongside fellow G. I.s against Hitler’s war machine and came out the victor. The first genocide left him crazy with anger, the second crazy with despair. It took him two more wars to work things out. Through it all, he struggled against the demons of depression and alcoholism to ultimately find the best pieces of what it means to be a human being within himself and to make peace with a troubled world.
Based on in-depth interviews and weaving in the oral tradition of Native American storytelling, Johnny Pail Face Becomes a Human Being was written over the span of several years. According to Jarvis, “This book records the life of a remarkable human being. It is a roadmap for how to persevere and to overcome that speaks to Native and non-Native American readers alike. It’s been more than a privilege…it has been an honor to capture Johnny’s story so that it will not become lost to a nation that often forgets some of the best lessons from its own past as it rushes toward the future.”